AUSTRALIAN LABOUR.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 65, 23 April 1914, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN LABOUR.

TALK WITH AN ORGANISER. Mr S. G. Elston is the organising delegate of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, and lie is in Christchurch at present, having just come over from Australia. Talking to a SUN representative this morning he had several things to say regarding the differences of attitude between Labour in New Zealand and in Australia. Labour in Australia is political and it is organised for politics —that is the main difference, and Mr Elston is of the opinion that Labour in New Zealand is not going to do any effective work until it also organises for political p&wer and drops its sectional differences. Mr Elston should know something of Australian Labour activities, since he has been engaged in organising work in Australia for his society for five years, and in that time he has covered the whole continent more than once. He is a convinced believer in the big union idea, and the fault he finds in New Zealand is that there are too many unions, too many political parties and too many industrial laws. '' Simplify, simplify!" is his watchword. He says the policy is to open the membership of a union to all who may be concerned in its operations, and gave as an instance the policy of his own, the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, which, taking a hint from German industrial unionism, admits into its ranks all metal-workers, " from watchmakers to Dreadnought builders " he says. His society had 4000 members in 1907, and now it has 12,000, with ten branches throughout Australasia and 1100 in New Zealand. CONSERVATIVE TASMANIA.

Naturally he is an enthusiast for the Australian Labour Governments, and in talking of Labour developments in the various States instanced Tasmania as being' the most backward, being still handicapped, he says, by the conservatism of a hundred years ago. In Tasmania there are, according to Mr Elston, the worst industrial conditions in Australasia and some of the worst monopolies in the world. To illustrate the conservatism of Tasmania he mentioned that the Van Dieinan's Land Company, founded with the beginning of the country, actually held rights over the waterfront extending from Strachan to Launceston, and that when the State wished to make use of any portion of that waterfront it had to lease it from the company. Other instances where ancient concessions are allowed to interfere with State and municipal progress were quoted, but though these things happen in Tasmania, and the general rate of wages is lower than anywhere else in Australasia, the cost of living is much the same. The rate of pay and the cost of living is much the same in Australia and this Dominion. REGULATION OF WAGES. j

When asked about the differences on the legal machinery regulating wage's in New Zealand and Australia, Mr Elston started with a panegyric on Mr Justice Higgins, judge of the Federal Arbitration Court, and then came to details. There are only two arbitration Acts in Australasia that are identical in their provisions—the New Zealand and the West Australian Acts, but the Westralian law has been copied from New Zealand —all the other States have Wages Board Acts, and Mr Elston's preferences are indicated in his remark that "Labour in New Zealand should watch that there is no introduction of Wages Boards in this country." The different Wages Boards in each State, and the Federal Industrial Acts make for conflict and clumsy 1 working, ho says, and he prefers the New Zealand Arbitration Act, with provision of representatives of em-, plovers and employed, to help the judge. In the Federal Arbitration Court the judge works alone, and it is asking too much of any man, says this enthusiast, to ask that a single man- shall constitute a court. THE LAW AND THE UNIONS.

But anyway, organised Labour in Australia" is strong enough to ignore Wages Boards, according to the evidence of this witness, who says that when the unions want the Wages Boards they use them, and when they don't they"get their demands satisfied just the same. Everyone who handles meat in Queensland belongs to the Queensland Butcher's Union, which has a Wages Board but dosen't worry about it because it is big enough and comprehensive enough not to need it —the union can get what it wants without troubling it. This weapon of dominating unionism is further exemplified in a case where the wntersiders' union brought its persuasive powers to bear on the tally clerks. A clerks' union was formed"; straightway the watersiders' union intimated that it would be necessary for the tally clerks to join the union—and the threat of strike on the part of this big organisation Avas so effective that the tally clerks found it advisable to join. TRAINING OF APPRENTICES.

But there arc other points in "Australian Labour organisation rather more admirable. Mr Elston quotes with approval the Westralian law relating to the training of apprentices. Some of the best points of this law were incorporated in a Bill brought down bv Mr Massev last year, but which failed to pass tho House, and they were incorporated on the suggestion of Mr Elston and others in conference with the Premier on the matter of the employment of apprentices. The Westralian Act provides that every apprentice shall be indentured, the indenture being registered by the Clerk of the Court. It binds the employer to provide proper training, and while the Act provides for limitation of the number of apprentices to be employed, it also provides that they shall be examined at certain intervals, the employer finding the time and the materials for the examination. ENFORCING STUDY. The apprentice is given a certificate form which is filled in by the Board of Examiners and returned to the Clerk of the Court. If on enquiry the examiners come to the conclusion that an apprentice has not received proper tainiug or proper opportunities, the. employer can be cited as for a breiu-li of award and fined; if, however, the apprentice is found to have been negligent, the examiners refuse to endorse his certificate, and he is thus debarred from receiving the rise in wages due to him until he satisfies the examiners at the next test. Mr Elston is in New Zealand on his business of organisation for a few days only, and returns to Australia shortlv.